What makes a good parent? Sex-specific relationships between nest attendance, hormone levels, and breeding success in a long-lived seabird

Riechert, Juliane; Becker, Peter

doi:10.1642/auk-17-13.1

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…Nest attentiveness remained constant throughout the day for successful nests, suggesting that parents balanced longer trips with the need to ensure the nest was never unattended for too long (Courtney 1979;Webb and King 1983). Though attentiveness rates for successful nests were higher than those reported in Riechert and Becker (2017), this may be due to higher ambient temperatures at our study site, given the ~ 15° difference in latitude, necessitating increased parental care in line with values observed in other studies (Courtney 1979;Bollinger et al 1990). However, failed nests showed precipitous declines in nest attentiveness during Cooling and Night hours at both sites, a finding that matches our observation that off-bouts were longer for failed nests than successful nests at Night.…”

Section: Natural Bout Characteristicssupporting

confidence: 76%

“…However, failed nests showed precipitous declines in nest attentiveness during Cooling and Night hours at both sites, a finding that matches our observation that off-bouts were longer for failed nests than successful nests at Night. While the decline in nocturnal nest attentiveness for failed nests contradicts the findings of Riechert and Becker (2017), this may be in part due to site differences such as local weather, temperatures, and the absence of predators.…”

Section: Natural Bout Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 53%

“…As would be expected, video monitoring of successful nests revealed that off-bouts were shortest during the period of the greatest thermal stress (Peak; Nisbet et al 2017), and median on-bout length was greatest during the Night period when the attending parent, likely the mother (Nisbet et al 2017;Riechert and Becker 2017), would be sleeping for extended periods. Though one would expect on-bouts to be especially long during the Peak period, this may have been interrupted by bellysoaking behavior or influenced by our small sample size during this particular time of the day.…”

Section: Natural Bout Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 75%

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Assessing nest attentiveness of Common Terns via video cameras and temperature loggers

et al. 2020

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Background: While nest attentiveness plays a critical role in the reproductive success of avian species, nest attentiveness data with high temporal resolution is not available for many species. However, improvements in both video monitoring and temperature logging devices present an opportunity to increase our understanding of this aspect of avian behavior. Methods: To investigate nest attentiveness behaviors and evaluate these technologies, we monitored 13 nests across two Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) breeding colonies with a paired video camera-temperature logger approach, while monitoring 63 additional nests with temperature loggers alone. Observations occurred from May to August of 2017 on Poplar (Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, USA) and Skimmer Islands (Isle of Wight Bay, Maryland, USA). We examined data respective to four times of day: Morning (civil dawn-11:59), Peak (12:00-16:00), Cooling (16:01-civil dusk), and Night (civil dusk-civil dawn). Results: While successful nests had mostly short duration off-bouts and maintained consistent nest attentiveness throughout the day, failed nests had dramatic reductions in nest attentiveness during the Cooling and Night periods (p < 0.05) with one colony experiencing repeated nocturnal abandonment due to predation pressure from a Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus). Incubation appeared to ameliorate ambient temperatures during Night, as nests were significantly warmer during Night when birds were on versus off the nest (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, off-bouts during the Peak period occurred during higher ambient temperatures, perhaps due to adults leaving the nest during the hottest periods to perform belly soaking. Unfortunately, temperature logger data alone had limited ability to predict nest attentiveness status during shorter bouts, with results highly dependent on time of day and bout duration. While our methods did not affect hatching success (p > 0.05), video-monitored nests did have significantly lower clutch sizes (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The paired use of iButtons and video cameras enabled a detailed description of the incubation behavior of COTE. However, while promising for future research, the logistical and potential biological complications involved in the use of these methods suggest that careful planning is needed before these devices are utilized to ensure data is collected in a safe and successful manner.

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Section: Natural Bout Characteristicssupporting

confidence: 76%

Section: Natural Bout Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 53%

Section: Natural Bout Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 75%

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Assessing nest attentiveness of Common Terns via video cameras and temperature loggers

et al. 2020

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“…Raising a brood successfully puts a metabolic demand on breeding birds that is the equivalent to a human cycling the Tour de France'. Similarly, Riechert and Becker (2017) repeated the assertion that 'chick rearing is often assumed to be the most demanding phase of reproduction'. Piersma and van Gils (2011) concluded that a metabolic scope (see Glossary) of 4-5.9× basal metabolic rate (BMR; see Glossary) in birds taking care of nestlings reflects animals 'highly motivated to work' and that this might represent 'a reasonable first guess at a maximum physiological working level of seriously challenged animals'.…”

Section: Should Variation In Parental Investment and Physiological Stmentioning

confidence: 96%

Physiology, activity and costs of parental care in birds

Williams

2018

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Parental care is assumed to be costly in that it requires sustained, high-intensity activity sufficient to cause costs of reproduction (decreased survival and future fecundity of parents). Costs of reproduction are, in turn, thought to have a physiological basis where intense activity causes a decrease in parental condition. However, attempts to identify the physiological basis of costs of reproduction have produced mixed results. Here, I argue that in birds, the central idea that parental care represents sustained, high-intensity work might be incorrect. Specifically: (a) the duration of intense activity associated with chick-rearing might be quite limited; (b) flight, the most obvious sustained, high-intensity activity, might only represent a small component of an individual's overall activity budget; (c) some (high-quality) individuals might be able to tolerate costs of intense activity, either owing to their physiological state or because they have access to more resources, without perturbation of physiological homeostasis; and (d) individuals might utilise other mechanisms to modulate costs of activity, for example, mass loss, again avoiding more substantial physiological costs. Furthermore, I highlight the important fact that life-history theory predicts that reproductive trade-offs should only be expected under food stress. Most birds breed in spring and early summer precisely because of seasonal increases in food abundance, and so it is unclear how often parents are food stressed. Consequently, I argue that there are many reasons why costs of reproduction, and any physiological signature of these costs, might be quite rare, both temporally (in different years) and among individuals.

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“…However, results from experimental studies with more comprehensive assessment of the physiological basis of costs associated with parental care in birds have been very mixed (reviewed in 5, e.g. [ 24 , 27 – 31 ]). In general, these studies reveal few, or perhaps complex, relationships between workload (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physiological predictors of reproductive performance in the European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

Fowler¹,

Paquet²,

Legault³

et al. 2018

Front Zool

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BackgroundIt is widely assumed that variation in fitness components has a physiological basis that might underlie selection on trade-offs, but the mechanisms driving decreased survival and future fecundity remain elusive. Here, we assessed whether physiological variables are related to workload ability or immediate fitness consequences and if they mediate future survival or reproductive success. We used data on 13 physiological variables measured in 93 female European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) at two breeding stages (incubation, chick-rearing), for first-and second-broods over two years (152 observations).ResultsThere was little co-variation among the physiological variables, either in incubating or chick-rearing birds, but some systematic physiological differences between the two stages. Chick-rearing birds had lower hematocrit and plasma creatine kinase but higher hemoglobin, triglyceride and uric acid levels. Only plasma corticosterone was repeatable between incubation and chick-rearing. We assessed relationships between incubation or chick-rearing physiology and measures of workload, current productivity, future fecundity or survival in a univariate manner, and found very few significant relationships. Thus, we next explored the utility of multivariate analysis (principal components analysis, Mahalanobis distance) to account for potentially complex physiological integration, but still found no clear associations.ConclusionsThis implies either that a) birds maintained physiological variables within a homeostatic range that did not affect their performance, b) there are relatively few links between physiology and performance, or, more likely, c) that the complexity of these relationships exceeds our ability to measure it. Variability in ecological context may complicate the relationship between physiology and behavior. We thus urge caution regarding the over-interpretation of isolated significant findings, based on single traits in single years, in the literature.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12983-018-0288-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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What makes a good parent? Sex-specific relationships between nest attendance, hormone levels, and breeding success in a long-lived seabird

Cited by 14 publications

References 71 publications

Assessing nest attentiveness of Common Terns via video cameras and temperature loggers

Assessing nest attentiveness of Common Terns via video cameras and temperature loggers

Physiology, activity and costs of parental care in birds

Physiological predictors of reproductive performance in the European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

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